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Change at CDC Draws Protest

Reorganization Threatens Worker Safety Group, Many Say

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 31, 2004; Page A19

A bureaucratic shuffle within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has prompted a political firestorm among experts in worker health and safety and has reignited questions about the Bush administration's commitment to sound science.

At the center of the storm is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the institute within the CDC that conducts research on workplace illnesses, injuries and deaths.

President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill on Dec. 29, 1970, setting national occupational health and safety standards.
(AP)

NIOSH was created in 1970 along with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but the two have very different missions. With a legislative mandate that calls for it to be insulated from political winds -- and with its director reporting directly to the head of the CDC -- NIOSH has long nurtured a reputation for independence, rigor and scientific credibility, according to both labor and business interests.

OSHA, by contrast, is an inherently political animal. It resides in the Labor Department and uses information from NIOSH and other sources to craft regulations or voluntary guidelines that weigh the interests of labor and business, usually in sync with the philosophy of the party in power.

Now, however, as part of a larger CDC reorganization effective Oct. 1, NIOSH is to become part of a mid-level "coordinating center" along with other CDC programs. Its director will no longer report directly to CDC Director Julie L. Gerberding.

Gerberding has said the change will increase NIOSH's value by bringing efficiencies that will free up administrative funds for research. But the move has drawn protests from virtually every occupational health and safety organization in the country, including some representing labor and others more aligned with corporate management -- groups that usually are at policy loggerheads but that have shared interests in good science.

Opposition also crosses party lines. Letters opposing the change have been signed by every living former NIOSH director back to the Nixon administration and by assistant secretaries for labor and health from both Republican and Democratic administrations.

"This may be the first issue in the last decade that all the worker safety and health stakeholder groups agree on," said Frank White, a Reagan administration labor official who is now vice president of Organization Resources Counselors Inc., an international management and human resources consulting firm that advises on occupational health issues for 150 large corporations. "It's hard to see a reorganization like this making NIOSH more effective."

NIOSH scientists -- including those working at its research sites in Morgantown, W.Va.; Pittsburgh; Cincinnati; Atlanta; and Spokane, Wash. -- have conducted and compiled much of the science that has clarified the risks of indoor air pollution, occupational stress, workplace chemical exposures and other dangers. The institute also funds hundreds of independent researchers through its grant program.

Each day, an estimated 9,000 U.S. workers sustain disabling injuries on the job, 16 die of work-related injuries and 137 die of work-related diseases, resulting in tens of billions of dollars in direct costs and hundreds of billions in indirect costs, according to government statistics.

Yet NIOSH has often struggled to ensure its independence and at times its survival -- as in the mid-1990s, when the Republican House tried to kill it. Some corporate interests chafe at NIOSH's right to enter workplaces without a warrant when called in by employees to investigate safety issues.

"I can't fathom it because almost everyone works, so you'd think that healthy work would be important," said Dana Loomis, an epidemiologist and environmental health scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "But the unfortunate reality nowadays is that worker welfare, including worker health, is perceived by many as special interest," not worthy of federal protection.

Gerberding, who is realigning NIOSH as part of her Futures Initiative to streamline the CDC, said in an interview that she intends to retain and increase NIOSH's impact.

"We will do anything," she said, to avoid cuts at the institute, noting that she recently transferred millions of dollars in discretionary funds to NIOSH to boost its flat budget.